Dwindling numbers of wild turkeys across most of Georgia are ‘a real concern’

It’s a bad time to be a turkey in Georgia, even if you don’t live on a poultry farm. The number of turkey poults – what turkey experts call baby turkeys – is on the decline across nearly all of Georgia, according to numbers from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, with most of the […]

The No. 1 problem facing Georgia’s wild turkeys is the loss of what’s called early successional habitat, which flourishes after a disturbance like a hurricane, wildfire or the removal of trees and is what exists long before land evolves into a mature forest. Photo courtesy of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources

It’s a bad time to be a turkey in Georgia, even if you don’t live on a poultry farm.

The number of turkey poults – what turkey experts call baby turkeys – is on the decline across nearly all of Georgia, according to numbers from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, with most of the state’s turkeys reproducing below the replacement rate of two poults per hen.

“We have been monitoring poult production in Georgia since the late 70s, and back in the 80s and 90s, we averaged about four poults per hen,” said wildlife biologist and DNR wild turkey project coordinator Emily Rushton.

The DNR’s annual count of poults per hen takes place over the summer, after the spring breeding season, when hens are with their poults. Members of the public can submit observations to help with the count.

“In the early 2000s, it took a pretty sharp decline,” Rushton said. “But the past 10 years or so, we’ve been holding steady at about 1.5 poults per hen.”

Turkeys in Georgia’s lower coastal plain in the southeastern part of the state are the sole silver lining in the poult census, with the average hen hatching 2.39 poults, up from 1.85 in last year’s survey.

The heavily populated Piedmont region which takes up most of the northern half of the state and includes Atlanta and its surrounding regions saw the steepest decline, dropping from 1.94 poults per hen last year to 1.21 this year.

The No. 1 problem facing Georgia’s gobblers is the loss of what’s called early successional habitat, which flourishes after a disturbance like a hurricane, wildfire or the removal of trees and is what exists long before land evolves into a mature forest. Think shrubby, grassy fields with dense ground cover but not a lot of trees, where turkeys can be themselves, hiding out and munching on seeds, insects and other favorites.

“There’s a lot of factors at play, certainly the most important one is probably habitat loss and landscape level changes in the state,” Rushton said. “Obviously there’s been a lot of development in Georgia, habitat fragmentation and loss of early successional habitat, which is really important for turkeys for raising their broods. The poults are relying on insects, and insects are most abundant in early successional habitat.”

Georgia has taken steps in recent years to reverse the turkeys’ downward trend, including shortening the turkey hunting season starting in 2021.

Turkey season takes place during the spring breeding season, and wildlife experts hoped pushing back the start date a week or two to let the turkeys do their thing without getting shot at would help bolster nest numbers.

“There’s some thought that perhaps the early hunting season was interrupting some of the natural calling and response in the way they behave in the woods,” said Georgia Wildlife Federation President Mike Worley. “So that’s why it was pushed back some time, to give a little bit better opportunity to allow the birds to kind of go through a natural cycle without people in the woods with them.”

Worley called the turkeys’ decline “a real concern across the state,” but he expressed optimism that the situation can be improved.

“We’ve cut the bag limit and put restrictions on how many birds hunters can take. All of those things contribute to addressing the issue,” he said. “And we’re not in a situation of absolute crisis. We’re in a situation where it demands perhaps a bit more aggressive management, and I think that’s what you’re seeing, rather than the whole nuclear option of shutting down hunting.”

Worley said one thing property owners can do to make things easier for turkeys is to plan controlled burns.

Georgia’s flora and fauna evolved to benefit from periodic fires, and burning down old vegetation can help make room for the early successional habitat where turkeys thrive.

“If somebody comes to us and says we would like to manage our land for turkeys, one of the first things that we tell them is let’s get some fire on the ground,” Worley said. “There are certainly plants that you can plant, food plots that you can put in, all kinds of things, but those are all secondary to the fact that just a simple burn – which is what our native environment really requires – a simple burn can do a lot in restoring turkey habitat.”

Rushton said it’s not just people who look forward to eating turkey, and the birds’ recovery will be important for critters up and down the food chain.

“They are a really important prey species,” she said. “Their eggs are an important prey item for a lot of wildlife species – other avian species, birds, snakes, and mammals, basically anything will eat a turkey egg or a turkey poult. And they are also a good indicator of forest health, habitat health.”

SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE